blood paintings
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: [AT] In which Shirou Emiya dies before the war truly begins, but things find a way of happening anyway.
1. 25 - Ultimum

**A/N:** Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, e7 – drabble collection consisting only of 100 word drabbles. Also written for the Duel World Challenge, vs. Knopse.

Drabbles are posted out of order (on purpose XD) but the numbers on them explain their chronological order.

* * *

 **blood paintings**

 _25\. Ultimum_

It doesn't matter that their tale's slightly different in the middle; it ends the same. The Grail's destroyed without bringing a single wish into fruition and the Servants vanish from the world. Rin is left re-examining the circle she'd drawn in her family mansion and wondering how she'd managed to summon Shirou Emiya in the first place, what object had been the catalyst…

Apparently Shirou Emiya had a bit of Saber buried with him. A creepy coincidence and pure luck on Shinji's part.

Still, it's closure on Rin's part. Saving him would've given him time, but not changed his fate.


	2. 2 - Rin

**Blood Paintings**  
 _2\. Rin_

She tries. She really does, and as hard as she can because that boy – Emiya – is so important to the sister she's had to let go.

She tries. It does nothing. She can only drain her mana dry and watch him bleed out.

Archer comes, a red shadow in a scene that's already far too red and she allows herself to cry. She's failed. She's failed and not only could she not protect her school and a classmate, but she'll make her sister cry.

She leaves the pendant, even though it's done nothing.

Archer's failed too. Lancer wins this bout.


	3. 6 - Morning

**blood paintings**  
6. _Morning_

There's chaos at school that morning. Of course there is, even if only Rin sees it coming.

It's Miss Fujimora who actually sees, though. She practically trips over him and has a lecture on her tongue before she realises what she's seeing.

The blood doesn't stain her dress. It's already dried out. The scream of horror escapes her lips and dashes down the hall.

It's Mr Kozuki who organises things, in the end. Shoes the students away. Calls the police and ambulance. School's shut down and several students go home in tears. Sakura Matou. Issei Ryuudou.

And dry-eyed Rin Tousaka.


	4. 19 - classmates

**blood paintings**  
19. _Classmate_

Rin didn't know Shirou Emiya very well. It's even more clear when she learns of her Archer's true identity because the two don't look or act the same at all.

Not at first glance, anyway. But she knows his reputation. She can see how that tragic tale of his spiralled to that end. And it's sad. It's sad because no human should be that selfish. No human should hold their own life in such low regard…

And it took Archer far too long to learn that, and now he has to bear the pain of enlightenment for eternity.

It's… sad.


	5. 7 - Progression

**blood paintings**  
7. _Progression_

Things go much as he expects, after that. Servants fight. Masters clash. The numbers whittle slowly down, towards the end.

Rin isn't a bad master, as far as things go. They're still in the game, after all. And Archer has no reason not to listen to her orders anymore.

If Emiya Shirou were still around…

Well, it doesn't matter anymore. Though who has Saber, then. There are Masters still unveiled.

He wonders if Emiya Shirou was the one who should have gotten Saber.

That doesn't matter either. He did not summon Saber.

Saber has not yet appear on the battlefield.


	6. 8 - Saber

**blood paintings**  
8. _Saber_

Saber is surprised to find her master is… incompetent.

It's a case of a hasty replacement, she thinks, looking at the boy in disgust.

She's not sure why she's agreed, honestly.

No, she's just lying to herself. She does know. Anger clouded her vision. Anger against her previous master: a man she'd thought was fighting for a noble cause and who could have given her the Grail, only to pull back at the last minute and let her burn.

But as much as she hates that memory, she despises this master boy she's – far too hastily – entered a pact with.


	7. 5 - Empty

**blood paintings**  
5. _Empty_

Sakura is surprised she can't find Shirou anywhere in the house, and it's not for lack of trying. She knows the place well, after all, including the storage room he sometimes sleeps in. He's not there. Ms Fujimora hasn't seen him either, though she's not worried. There are a lot of reasons a teenage boy wouldn't be home in the morning. Gone grocery shopping. Finally decided that morning jogs are important. Gone out to eat. Maybe spent the night at a friend's house… or a girlfriend's house.

Sakura can't help but worry, though, because Shirou hasn't even left a note.


	8. 10 - Entering

**blood paintings** _  
10\. Entering_

Rider is the first to fall… but that's okay. Sakura is grateful for the chance to bow out of the war. It's taken too much already. Or perhaps she's linking things that don't need to be linked and Shirou Emiya is an outlier.

She doubts it. There are still three masters at the school. It's too much of a coincidence. And it's a given people will die in wars. Her life was rewritten in the last war. And now…

She's not out of the woods, with command seals still on her hand. But at least she's off the front lines.


	9. 18 - Guardian

**blood paintings** _  
18\. Guardian_

Really, explaining his past also means accepting there's no way out. Shirou Emiya's death earlier in the cycle doesn't stop him becoming a Guardian. His continued existence is proof of that.

Or maybe he's managed to save this Shirou. Who knows.

Who really cares. He's become a little selfish over time. Maybe if he gets his hands on the Grail, he'll be able to save himself. It's really his only hope, now. His raison d'etre.

He wonders how many of the others feel the same.

But seeing the sympathy on Saber's face, he knows… there's a depth only Guardians share.


	10. 11 - Dogo

**blood paintings** _  
11\. Dojo_

Saber wanders away from her new master, whenever she can. She explores the city. She finds herself drifting to certain places in particular. The relics of the last war, for one. The place where she'd been forced to destroy the grail.

And then the place that Kiritsugu Emiya had taken as he stronghold in the last war.

His barriers are still up. It's a surprise, she thinks, to feel how much love is in them.

There's something in the air. Sadness. And stagnancy.

She asks the neighbours. Kiritsugu is five years dead, and his son a far more recent victim.


	11. 9 - Shinji

**blood paintings** _  
9\. Shinji_

He can't believe his luck. His pathetic little sister has Rider and grandfather has pinned his hopes on her… and then the command seals appear on his hands.

It's a stroke of luck.

The second stroke of luck is when Saber appears from the summoning spell. _Saber:_ the best of the seven classes. The strongest warrior. He doesn't know how he's done it, but he has.

He's practically guaranteed to win this war, now. Even if she does look at him with thinly veiled disgust.

Still, their one and only objective is the Grail. They don't need to be friends.


	12. 14 - Berserker

**blood paintings _  
_** _14\. Berserker_

This is the second time in two wars, Saber thinks, that Berserker seems to have a specific interest in her. This time though she's sure it's not because of Berserker's identity. She has no relation to Hercules. And he doesn't waste his time with frivolous nonsense like Gigamesh.

If it's not Hercules, then it's Illyasviel von Einzbern. She knows her to be one of the homunculi and a suitable vessel to the Grail.

But she also knows of another homunculus who had a child. Though she'd never asked the name.

It's likely. It's also likely not.

None of them talk.


	13. 23 - Avalon

**blood paintings** _  
23\. Avalon_

Saber finally sees the last piece of the puzzle, when Archer stands close enough to touch and throws copy after copy at Gilgamesh, who parries with the originals.

She sees it as she touches his ankle and feels her strength return and her wounds knit up.

It's Avalon, the original Avalon, living inside Archer. Living inside Shirou Emiya.

Her heart aches at realising she could have saved the Shirou of this time if she'd only been there.

But now Archer is the one fighting to save her. Matching Gilgamesh blow for blow and they're evenly matched.

Saber is the decider.


	14. 15 - Mask

**blood paintings** _  
15\. Mask_

Archer wants to avoid Berserker. Shinji and Rin make that impossible.

He knows Rin is only helping Shinji because of Sakura. He knows Shinji's reasons are anything but.

He also knows why Berserker is fixated on Saber.

He'd rather not shift that fixation onto himself.

He can't help it. His long distance attacks aren't much good against Hercules' Noble Phantasm so he has to get closer.

He has to get closer to strike him with the only weapon that can defeat his multiple lives.

Close enough for them to see what the others have, until that moment, failed to grasp.


	15. 17 - Discussion

**blood paintings _  
_** _17\. Discussion_

Hercules is defeated and Shinji is at home. The rest of them gather at Rin's place, and there's a lot to say between them.

Illya's story is short and sweet. Her parents left in the last grail war and never came back for her. At some point, she learnt her father had adopted a son, and it had felt like he'd abandoned her.

Saber's was likewise brief. She'd served with Kiritsugu in the last war. She, reluctantly, serves Shinji now.

Archer's is the longest and the hardest to swallow, and it tells of a Shirou they didn't get to know.


	16. 16 - Family

**blood paintings** _  
16\. Family_

They are not related by blood. They've never even met, in life. But it doesn't matter. Across different future strands, they share a bond. Though only one of them really knows what it entails.

'Shirou Emiya,' says the homunculus. She doesn't know why she knows. But she does.

No-one can pretend to know all the ways magic works in this world.

Rin gapes at him, at her Archer. Saber's reaction is more reserved but she is likewise shocked. Shirou Emiya is dead, after all.

But that is what all the heroic spirits are. Dead… though once they had been alive.


	17. 12 - Family

**blood paintings** _  
12\. Family_

Kiritsugu Emiya has a daughter. This Saber knows. She doesn't know of a son, however.

It turns out he's adopted. Found in the wreckage they caused in the last war, at that. Taiga Fujimora is surprisingly forthcoming of all she knows of the Emiyas.

It's enough information to suspect that a Servant killed Shirou Emiya.

Saber wonders if he'd have been her Master, if he'd lived. He would've had access to her relic. Which makes her wonder how Shinji managed it. Avalon is not there.

The Matous have a hoard of treasures. Perhaps luck was on their side, this time.


	18. 21 - Kirei

**blood paintings** _  
21\. Kirei_

It's amusing, how Kiritsugu Emiya's legacy has survived.

There's Saber, first of all. The same Saber from the previous war, so now he and Gilgamesh can settle their old score with her.

Then there's Rin Tohsaka, but that one speaks for herself. And the little homunculus girl… but she'll turn into the grail soon enough. He only need wait, and snatch her away when the time's ripe.

And then there is the surprising identity of Rin's Archer. He knows about Shirou Emiya. Of course he knows; Kiritsugu had become the bane of his existence after all.

He has another chance.


	19. 3 - Archer

**blood paintings** _  
3\. Archer_

Archer's too late, in more ways than one. He misses the student watching them until Lancer's caught on first. He misses killing Lancer beforehand. He misses Lancer again, when the escapes into the school, then over the river, then misses Rin about to make the stupidest mistake in the war –

And then misses it failing too. He arrives and Rin is crying. Crying.

Somewhere to the river, his memories slink back in, but it's far too late.

It was probably on purpose. Too late to do anything about that. Shirou Emiya steps out of the cycle of life and death.


	20. 13 - Illya

**blood paintings** _  
13\. Illya_

She doesn't get to meet big brother. It's a little sad, but mostly she's angry because she's lost her chance at both answers and revenge.

Then she meets Saber who looks oh so familiar and suddenly she has a chance for answers again. Poor Saber doesn't remember though, or she doesn't care.

It doesn't matter. Hercules is a match even for the strongest Saber-class Servant. As for his Master… He's a cowardly weakling who hides in the corner, giving orders.

Illya wants to kill him. And she'll get to it. But she wants Saber – for both answers and revenge – more.


	21. 22 - Gilgamesh

**blood paintings  
** _22\. Gilgamesh_

He is inordinately pleased to see Saber. Their unfinished battle from the last war can finally be rectified.

Archer, who steps in when he's about to deal the killing blow, is another matter. Immediately, he despises him. A pitiful Guardian who's the complete opposite of him and yet in the same class, who can match him original for relic and who can't quite come out on top –

But that doesn't matter. It's infuriating. He wants to defeat Saber. He wants to defeat the other Archer. But Saber is already defeated –

Then she stands, healed, and the tables flip on him.


	22. 24 - Grail

**blood paintings** _  
24\. Grail_

The war is almost over. Archer and Saber remain, but time's about to run out. Illya's sickness reaches its peak and the Grail appears.

One of them only needs to claim it.

It's not that simple though. There's Rin and Shinji, and Kirei Kotomine though they leave that honour to Rin.

Shinji though… He's Sakura's brother, no matter what else he is.

It doesn't seem to matter to the Grail, anyway. It's there, spilling with the last war's corruption.

Kirei's right. They can't obtain their wishes with that thing. It's not fair, after they've fought…

But it can only destroy.


	23. 4 - Offer

**blood paintings** _  
4\. Offer_

There's a new voice. He can understand this one. Offering him the chance to continue his dream. To keep fighting for it.

That's what he wants, isn't it?

He agrees and takes the offer of a Guardian life.

After that, he learns about bitterness, and betrayal.

And somewhere along the line, he becomes the hero he'd dreamt off after all. The dream he'd looked at through rose-tinted glasses.

They're blood-tinted glasses now.

He's surprised they haven't manifested as a part of his persona. He can do it, but his clothes are unconscious for the most part.

No-one recognises him anyway.


	24. 1 - Shirou

**blood paintings  
** _1\. Shirou_

There's dancing red on a redder background and he doesn't understand why it makes sense, except it does. Though he remembers lance piercing flesh and that's why he can't see anything else, why he can hear a voice he knows he should recognise but can't seem to grasp, and words he should understand but can't seem to place…

No-one ever told him you lose all sensibilities when you die. His father certainly didn't. He'd passed on his dream with a smile and then he was just… gone.

Not like this: slipping away into a haze, still trying to grasp… something.


	25. 20 - Child

**blood paintings  
** _20\. Child_

At first, he'd wanted to be a hero.

He wonders how many people who wanted to be heroes wind up twisted down the road. The ones who don't die too early, probably, he thinks.

Kiritsugu Emiya was one of the ones who twisted, wasn't he?

Shirou Emiya is another one. And he can twist even further. If the Shirou of this world had survived Lancer, what would he have done? Killed his past himself? Perhaps. At least, when he hadn't known what a pointless endeavour it would be.

Now… Unless he became a Master in another war, he needn't bother.


End file.
